Fashion Forward: Finery The Wardrobe Operating System

Get dressed up in your finery and join the Fashion Forward Revolution with Finery. Finery, ‘The Wardrobe Operating System’ is where a styling app meets sustainable fashion. Finery is a must-have wardrobe inventory management system created by Brooklyn Decker and Whitney Casey. Finery will have you falling in love with your clothing all over again. After all, the reason you bought those clothes in the first place was to wear them more than once. Somewhere along the way, many of us have fallen out of touch with our wardrobe and find ourselves faced with the dilemma of not knowing what to wear each day. We tell ourselves we have nothing to wear. So, we go out and buy new clothing that perhaps we don’t need. Sound familiar? We come to the realization what we really need is a little inspiration to restyle our current wardrobe. Welcome, Finery! This user-friendly app will change your whole perspective on your existing wardrobe. By digitizing your wardrobe onto the Finery app you now have at your fingertips your whole closet. (Think the ‘Clueless Closet.’) Finery helps you style outfits by providing a cleverly curated daily inspiration board tailored just for you based on your clothing and preferences—basically like having a personal wardrobe concierge. Finery is changing the way we get dressed. It is changing the way we look at fashion. You will find yourself excited about curating your own looks in a matter of no time. Ultimately, extending the lifecycle of your clothing. You will also quickly find that Finery is more than just a styling app, it is a community.

The Finest In Sustainable Fashion

How does a styling app contribute to sustainable fashion exactly? Our society is based on a consumerism culture encouraging us to shop more and keep up with the latest fashion trends. This has lead to a ‘throwaway’ culture. We are being conditioned to discard clothing and products either because they are not on trend anymore or were not made to last. This is an incredibly wasteful practice. As we become more aware of fast fashion and the amount of waste generated by the fashion industry we find ourselves wanting to make lifestyle changes. Finery helps you rethink the way you look at fashion starting with your current wardrobe by bringing back that love for your clothing through using their styling inspiration boards and curating your own looks. Restyling your existing wardrobe gives you a feeling of empowerment to wear outfits or pieces of clothing more than 4-5 times. Increasing the lifecycle of your clothing is a simple way we can all support sustainable fashion. We buy clothes because we love the way they look and how they make us feel. Finery reminds us of this fact. The Finery community embraces a fashion revolution of loving clothing you already own, wear what you have in new stylish ways and shop your own closet. The experience of using the app helps you have a brand new love for your clothes. It gives you that feeling of having bought new clothes without spending money. Ultimately, Finery encourages us to extend the lifecycle of the clothing we already own. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, “every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned. An estimated USD $500 billion value lost every year due to clothing being barely worn or rarely recycled.”

We can all do our part to contribute to sustainable fashion even by simply extending the lifecycle of our clothing or donating unwanted clothing to charities makes a positive impact on the environment. When we buy clothing, we should choose well and buy less. Choose pieces of clothing you can envision yourself wearing on different occasions helps extend the lifecycle of your wardrobe. Finery creates an opportunity for you to take a step back and evaluate your wardrobe inventory. As a top-notch wardrobe inventory management system, you have the opportunity to catalog and categorize your wardrobe, shoes, and accessories onto the Finery app. Managing your clothes digitally helps you shop smarter and saves you money in the long run. With your wardrobe inventory at your fingertips, you will no longer find yourself buying clothing you already own or similar to. Finery also keeps track of your wishlist items and sale returns.

Take the Finery Challenge

The Finery Challenge was created by @thelittlecream. The challenge is simple, don’t shop for new clothing, instead fall back in love with your existing clothing. Challenge yourself for 1-3 months no shopping for new clothes, just restyle what already exists in your wardrobe. Finery Challenge accepted! Who is with me? This challenge is a great way to contribute to the greater good of sustainable fashion by loving what you already own and wearing what you have more often. Join the Finery community by sharing your looks and style inspirations on Instagram. It’s a fashion revolution of loving the clothing you already have and being creative with your looks.

My Finery Experience

Here is what my Finery experience has taught me…

It turns out I don’t need any more clothes! If you are anything like me, you find yourself waking up in the morning not knowing what to wear or thinking I have ‘nothing” to wear. When really it is a matter of needing some inspiration. Finery provides that. It makes interacting with my closet and the activity of picking out an outfit less stressful and more fun. Taking part in the Finery Challenge has been a positive experience. I am encouraged, supported and inspired by the Finery community. We are all a part of something special. Using the Finery app helps me maintain my sustainable fashion resolution by buying less, shopping smarter and extending the lifecycle of my existing wardrobe. Rewearing favorite outfits or styling them in new ways helps me feel good. I don’t play by that rule of ‘you can’t repeat an outfit’ or ‘wear the same dress again,’ God forbid. I love wearing rediscovered favorite pieces of clothing in new ways and new looks.

While I began the process of uploading my wardrobe onto the Finery app I was inspired to purge my closet of what I don’t wear or doesn’t fit— giving them a second life by donating and selling them. Keeping only what brings me joy. If you shop mostly in store—digitizing your closet can take a little time and dedication… That being said, the browser extension is really good for this. Just google an item, click the little F button, and add to wardrobe. Now, I have a new appreciation and love for my clothing. I am excited to put a little effort into styling an outfit with the help of Finery. I realized I need to break the habit or mindset of buying new clothing because I can’t ‘find’ anything to wear. For me personally, it really comes down to being in a rut of feeling uninspired about what to wear and Finery gives my current wardrobe new found life. I make an effort to wear clothing I haven’t worn in ages. I love the process of rediscovering almost forgotten favorite pieces of clothing and putting together clothing to make a new look that I hadn’t thought of before. I credit Finery for that.

Interview with Brooklyn Decker, Co-Founder of Finery

It was such an incredible privilege to chat with Brooklyn Decker about Finery and sustainable fashion.

What inspired Finery?

Traveling a lot for work. Going on a work trip and realizing I forgot a pair of jeans was a big annoyance. I would go out and buy a new pair of jeans. I ended up with all the unnecessary redundancies in my wardrobe and I wanted a tool to streamline it all. From that inspired Finery, creating an inventory management system for clothing. We manage everything else, finances, music, why not clothing? Closets are the last frontier, one of the last analog systems. This was an opportunity to fulfill a gap in the market. Finery is built for women, by women.

What is the heart of Finery?

The heart of Finery is focusing on the value of our users. We offer a lot of features on the app, styling inspiration, digital wardrobe and sale return notifications. We ask ourselves does this help the user? For example, the weather feature informs users clothing to wear based on weather conditions and that is very helpful. Finery also suggests outfits that are appropriate for an event. Finery helps users save money and time. It’s all about making the best user experience and giving them value.

How does Finery make getting dressed simpler?

Particularly for frequent online shoppers, Finery is very useful. You log into your account and your clothing is already there uploaded into your Finery account. For all users, it helps alleviate the burden of what to wear. You scroll through your wardrobe the night before, look at different styling options and put together an outfit in a matter of minutes. Finery helps expedite the process of getting dressed.

What is your favorite feature on the Finery App?

My favorite feature with Finery is the return notifications. I do a lot of shopping online. Finery makes things simple and keeps you informed when returns are due. Often return windows are very short and can be confusing. Finery keeps you on track with email notifications and makes everything simpler. Best of all it 100% benefits the user!

How do you hope Finery will revolutionize or make positive changes in the fashion industry?

We want to help consumers make more informed purchase decisions and change the way people consume. Help consumers to shop smarter and become savvy consumers. Our society has a consumerism culture and we want to encourage consumers to shop smarter and rewear clothing more than 4-5 times. Moving away from a ‘throwaway’ society and learn a new behavior of bringing favorite clothing back and thereby extending the lifecycle of clothing. Finery helps consumers find new and creative ways to wear clothing. It is changing the way we get dressed and view our clothing.

What was your biggest challenge you have faced with this venture?

Finery is a company run by women and caters to a female audience. Finery addresses a problem that does not speak to men. Raising capital and conveying the importance of this app to investors has been a challenge.

What has been the most positive experience of launching this app?

The loyalty from our users is a beautiful takeaway. Hearing from users about their positive experience from using Finery and knowing that it is helping make their lives a little easier. When you reach a friend of a friend and hear how Finery has helped them. Women understand the importance of their clothing and love using Finery.

What is the significance and inspiration behind the name Finery?

Whitney and I, wanted a word, a real word, an antique word to bring back. “Dressed in your finery” is older vernacular and we thought it was cool. Dan Rather inspired the name.